Using Blogs & Twitter to Build Relationships
Hey All!
I get lots of questions all the time regarding blogging as a marketing tool and twitter as in, “What the hell is it for?” Yes, you should have a blog. There is no excuse for not having one. The technology has risen to a point where blogging can be as easy as sending an email (which is exactly the way this post was created.) One in particular, www.posterous.com, will cross post your entry to Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, Wordpress, Tumblr and more. For example check out the post you are reading right now at Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, Wordpress, and Tumblr. You ‘ll see it has been duplicated on all of these other blogs. Go to www.posterous.com right now (well after you’ve finished reading this anyway) and create an account. The process is simple and costs nothing other than your time.
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Go to the other blog sites, www.facebook.com, www.twitter.com, www.blogspot.com, www.wordpress.com and www.tumblr.com
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Create an account at each. I recommend using your personal name as I did or use your company name. Either way, whichever you use, be consistent and use the same username and email for all of them. This helps with continuity and with the Google bots. Typically each new post is saved as an individual page, so post 5 entries and you have now created 5 pages for Google to crawl. And with the cross posting you have actually created 20 posts/new pages at the minimum. BTW, don’t forget to write your username and password for each account.
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Go back to your posterous account and set up all the other site and accounts.
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Create your first post on posterous and then go check the other accounts to be certain everything is working correctly.
With posterous you can also text message a post. Let’s say you’re at a client site and something happens that could affect many others. Assuming you can describe it in 160 characters (the character limit for txt messaging) you can txt to posterous and bing, bang, boom; your alert is posted to posterous and all the other sites as well.
I know, now you’re asking, “Michael, this all well and good but how is it supposed to help me?” These are simply more touch points for customers and prospects. Building and adding value to a relationship depends on the person (business) seeing concrete efforts that they are in your thoughts far more than at time to invoice. Additionally this is fodder for PR activities and material for your newsletter. Send notice of your blog and the opportunity for all to get immediate notices of viruses, malware attacks, phishing efforts to look out for, etc. A service of this type is a good story for a community newspaper and that could also open a door for conversation regarding partnering with them in some manner.
And yes, I know you’re where on God’s green planet you’re going to find content or just come with ideas on which to blog. That’s really much easier than you would think. There are literally millions of blogs, newsletters and other sources of information about literally anything out there. For example, possible you read a particular blog or newsletter on a regular basis. If you’re reading it, it must have info you find interesting and relevant. Use that as a source. There’s nothing wrong with reading an article and then rewriting it in your words. Or maybe you have a slightly different insight or perspective on the topic. And you don’t have write the equivalent of “War & Peace.” In fact, please don’t. Keep your thoughts brief, concise and relevant. That’s all you really need to do. The bottom-line here is you can make this as easy or as difficult as you want it to be. So make it easy and get started.…. TODAY!
